Architektur | Anne Carrier Architectes
Anne Carrier Architectes - A New Teaching Pavilion at Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis - Between Heritage and Modernity - Levis - Canada
| 2025-12-16 |     |
Located in the heart of the historic Hôtel-Dieu de Lévis precinct, the new teaching pavilion for Université Laval’s medical program sensitively addresses the challenge of integrating into a site steeped in history. Designed to accommodate nearly 90 students, the pavilion offers an interactive, stimulating, and inclusive learning environment, tailored to the demands of contemporary medical education while supporting hands-on training in regional settings.
Designed by Anne Carrier Architectes (ACA), in consortium with Coarchitecture, the project establishes a respectful dialogue between the Augustines’ places of memory and the successive expansions of the Hôtel-Dieu, while meeting the needs of a forward-looking academic environment focused on collaboration and innovation. The building acts as a connective element between ACA’s recent interventions on the site, including Maison Dessercom and the Lévis CLSC–CHSLD, while maintaining the site’s overall visual cohesion. A 13-metre-long glazed bridge, suspended across three levels, provides a fluid transition to the historic Augustines pavilion, as well as to the north–south outdoor pedestrian route.
Shaped by the site’s topography, the project requalifies the surrounding outdoor spaces and extends the institutional history initiated in the 19th century by the religious community. Through its massing, its balanced spatial organization, and a restrained yet contemporary material palette, the pavilion aligns itself with the continuity of the place while asserting a confident contemporary identity without overpowering its context.
A learning environment rooted in its context
Overlooking the historic Vieux-Lévis district, the pavilion establishes a strong relationship with its surroundings. The alignment of the façade along Wolfe Street ensures a coherent reading of the historic ensemble, while the subtly angled inner façades frame compelling views of key landscape features. To the northwest, generous openings capture exceptional views of the St. Lawrence River and Quebec City, making the landscape an active and sensory component of daily experience. To the southeast, the building opens onto the Augustines’ Garden, forming an intimate inner courtyard—a place for reflection and informal encounters that enriches everyday life for users.
Designed to support both learning and well-being, the pavilion offers flexible, secure spaces filled with natural light. It encourages spontaneous interaction among students, clinicians, and faculty through a diversity of collaborative spaces and optimized circulation. The inclusion of a patient-partner clinic, specialized laboratories, and teaching spaces adapted to active learning pedagogy creates an environment where theory and practice naturally intersect. At the heart of the building, a four-storey central atrium becomes a true social hub: a bright, welcoming, and legible space that offers users an intuitive experience and a constant visual connection to the outdoors. Here, architecture supports not only education, but also communication, focus, and well-being.
A lasting contribution to the community
Far more than an academic facility, the teaching pavilion is conceived as a sustainable lever for attracting and retaining future physicians in the Chaudière-Appalaches region. By offering a high-quality learning environment that is human-centred, luminous, and deeply rooted in its territory, the building strengthens students’ sense of identity and belonging within the academic and medical community.
By bringing together heritage, modernity, and humanity, the new teaching pavilion actively contributes to improving access to healthcare in the region and to enriching community life in Lévis.
About Anne Carrier Architectes (ACA)
Anne Carrier Architectes enriches Quebec’s architectural landscape with bold and refined projects designed to resonate across generations. With more than 30 years of experience, the firm combines sensitivity, creativity, and leadership to meet its clients’ highest ambitions for architectural excellence.
Photo credit: Adrien Williams